Wednesday, July 11, 2007

How I Began To Love Malaysia

Honestly, I never always used to be like that. I had a turbulent young adulthood with a very tiny sense of patriotism.

I had no idea how it felt like to be a patriot and the hours of Pendidikan Moral and Sejarah back at school never really helped much even though I aced both subjects in SPM.

It was only when I left for the UK that I began to understand what being a Malaysian really meant.

There I was heading to UCL, the 3rd oldest university in the UK (after Oxford and Cambridge) off to study Economics at a faculty full of students from all over the world.I made friends with British, Americans, Russians, Israelis, Japanese... they came from all over the world to represent their respective countries in that faculty. I on the other hand, came along with 4 Malaysians to represent Malaysia.

It is only when you sit in a room full of people from all over the world that your national identity suddenly comes closer to heart.

People would ask me where I was from and whenever I said "Malaysia", nobody ever said "Where's that?"

They all nodded their heads and often said something like"Oh I love your twin towers!!! That has got to be the most beautiful building on the planet!".

It is at moments like this that I began to feel proud of where I came from.

Then there were the friends I hung out with.

There were the two nice Singaporean girls there that I met in my first year.The first Hong Kong girl I met in my lecture that I almost fell for.And even the first Japanese I met when I was there, his name is Koichi.Yes, my reaction in the picture came right after I said.

"HOLY SHIT YOU'RE A JAPANESE!!! I'VE HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT YOU!!!"

Then there was the group of Asians that I hung out with.Some of us were from China, some from Singapore, some from Hong Kong, and one of my very best friends Hasan, from the middle-east.

But being 10,000 KM away from home, sometimes it feels good to be around a group of Malaysians... to talk or even curse like a Malaysian.

People that will understand you when you say"Oi!!! Pundek!!!"

And for that I had a friend or two like Michelle who went to London with me all the way from Penang.Or Alina Rashid, one of my best friends back at UCL.And a group of friends that followed me to London right after we finished our A-levels here at Help Institute.

I remember this very moment when the group of us Malaysians stood in this picture in Leicester Square.It was only a few months since we all touched down in London and we were walking around Leicester Square.

One of us hustled and said"THIS IS THE FAMOUS LEICESTER SQUARE!!! LETS TAKE A PIC HERE TO MARK OUR ARRIVAL!!!"

And take a picture we did.

I spent 3 years in London with these friends of mine. 3 years sounds like a long time but it sure felt very short.Before I knew it, the time came for us to start making plans about what to do after graduation.

Many of my friends were adamant about finding a job and staying in the UK.

But my mind was clear from the start. I wanted to go home.

Even my friends back home were shocked when I told them that."Why? Why do you want to come back here? Life there is so much better, better standard of living, cold weather, equal rights.. you name it!".

I admitted that the dear country that brought us up was not perfect.

But that just made me want to go back even more to somehow, make a change.It didn't matter if I would be earning in Ringgit instead of pounds.It didn't matter.

What mattered was that I went overseas to find myself... and now that I had found myself it was time to go home.

I did come home and along with Ming, we started Nuffnang which is something Malaysian that has caught the eyes of even those on other side of the world.

I really am proud to be Malaysian... I am.So when one of my business associates-cum-friend Chan, the CEO of Exabytes told me about his company's Merdeka initiatives I offered myself to help, which is why you see a little Merdeka logo at the bottom right of my blog.Sure, the nice Chan gave another incentive for people to support the cause by giving away prizes like a Sony Ericsson Phone or a Logitech Wireless Mouse & Keyboard.

But as for me... being Malaysian is enough to support any initiative like that.

man... no one to ask me out for movies at Angels' VUE and 4 seasons anymore...even ah quah also don eat so much boss... sigh... nway, glad that you are doin great in malaysia, boss! hehe... will join you in a year!

being in overseas at this moment, I definitely can relate so much with your sentiments that you've felt. To an ironical extent, it feels strangely good and proud to be msian when I get to explain how msia is made up of different racial grps and how despite the differences we have coexisted and lived together for so long...

I certainly do wish I feel more patriotic abt Msia, but perhaps with the current state of affairs, I do think there's more for both the people to do for msia, AS Well as for the leaders for the people. With Merdeka coming up next month too...mm mixed feelings. Naja!

stan: hey dude... i read a lot about what goes on in our country but as patriot doesn't curse and swear at the flaws his country, he tries to do his part and hope for the better. e.g. if you love your gf, you don't leave her for her flaws, you stay with her and try to correct her

"..as patriot doesn't curse and swear at the flaws his country, he tries to do his part and hope for the better. e.g. if you love your gf, you don't leave her for her flaws, you stay with her and try to correct her"

Patriot siallllll..... surely must've knock ur head on some ceiling or a bunk bed when waking up one morning :P kidding bro..

I know what you mean, the 'i miss malaysia' feeling all came to me when i landed in KLIA and saw the 'welcome to malaysia' banner while still in the plane after coming back from US after 2 months there.

like what you said, its not a perfect country. but it's where i'd call kampung.

No joke man.. I got to know about you through kennysia.com and I think from now on i'm go be a regular reader of timothytiah.blogspot.com d.. haha.. what you're doing is good stuff man.. I have the same aspirations like you so go pave the way to motivate people to get going and make a change for Malaysia! No need to reach the millionares league, as long as what you did made a difference here!Go achive the Malaysian dream..God Bless Malaysia... =b

*chup chup* actually heard about you through a seminar back then at my school,(form5) SMKDU, PJ from this really proud (of you) lecturer at HELP bout how tuitionhamster.com was created through your iniative.. darn my respect and admiration from you is increasing.. you're bigger than you think! Go further than you can!

Your post remind me of incident half year ago when i decided to work in singapore. I got the job there and start to work there for 2 days and i think and think and think, why do i to suffer and work so hard for other country. Malaysia need me, sarawak need me, so off i go. I rejected their offer because i haven sign with them officially and now i am working in Malaysia earning RM and i am so happy for it. I LOVE MALAYSIA.

omg ... i was from HELP ... ADP 2000. Psych program. Aiyoh. Hey ... you so no class wan, laugh and POINT at ppl some more because he's Japanese, as if you come from some rural village where barbaric huntsmen still eat babies .......... malunya.